A time capsule of the greatest financial mania in the history of mankind, told in real-time by regular folks and patriots. May future generations better understand the madness of crowds, and how power and money corrupt.

Action Action Action as our Arnold says here in Kaliforny. . .right out of the chute on first trading day of 2008 - Market Crash (yea!), oil at $100, and gold up up and away. . .National City slashes dividend and lays off nearly 1000 people in mortgage dept. . . .I think the slow pace of the crash will pick up speed - wait until Countrywide puts their 14,000 REO's on the market!

Just last week, at a basketball game, in a bank "box" for clients, a bank loan officer said the worse in my area isn't over (this wasn't news to me). He said things will get significantly worse by this spring, as developers/banks have been able to so far hold and wait on various properties, but they will be unable to do that much longer. He thought this spring would be a significant turning point. He said this spring banks would be forced to quit holding (working with developers) and begin to foreclose and sell (interpret dump) which will only continue to decrease the price of properties which have declined fairly significantly already. He said his own bank was in a good position, but believed that other banks may have to shut their doors. Although this is nothing "new" to us here, it is fairly significant to hear a bank loan officer say the same thing.

Does anyone else see this as a green light for gold to rise in the future?

Bolivia's Congress raises mining taxesFri Nov 23, 2007 10:27pm EST

By Eduardo Garcia

LA PAZ, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Bolivia's Congress approved a reform to the mining tax code late on Friday that will substantially increase taxes on mining companies operating in the South American country.

Mining ministry spokesman Alfredo Zaconeta told Reuters the reform means mining companies will have to pay 37.5 percent of their income to the Bolivian state, up from 25 percent in the past.

The tax reform also broadens the scope of the Complementary Mining Tax (CMT) -- which acts like a royalty -- to include minerals that currently do not pay the levy, like indium and wolfram.

Zaconeta said the royalty tax will be directly proportional to the price of the mineral in the international market.

Currently, it ranges from 1 percent to 10 percent.

The reform also aims to close a legal loophole that grants miners hefty discounts on income tax payments, Zaconeta said.

After taking office as the country's first president of indigenous descent in January 2006, leftist President Evo Morales drastically raised taxes on natural gas operations and nationalized reserves of the fuel.

He has repeatedly pledged to carry out similar reforms in the mining sector.The tax hike and efforts to revitalize state-run mining company COMIBOL are at the heart of government plans to tighten the state's grip on Bolivia's vast reserves of tin, zinc, wolfram, lead, silver and gold. (Reporting by Eduardo Garcia; editing by Louise Heavens)

Gold won't go down for quite some time. If we had an open market and the "invisible hand" could restore sanity to the markets, I would be worried about gold being overvalued. However, every time the market drops significantly, its a signal to the fed to inflate to correct. In Greenspans own words, "this is not an open market, it's a regulated market." The fed will continue to do this until the election. Of course, the more they inflate, the more oil and gold go up.

Based on Greenspans admission, lets rename the Federal Open Market Committee the Federal Manipulated Market Committee. And lets rename the "Federal Reserve" the "Private Bank Monopoly" since the Federal Reserve is not federal and it has no reserves (reserve of what in a fiat currency?)

A friend who thinks he knows business and economics passed me a Kiplinger newsletter a couple months ago (the guy is actually an economist with a large insurance company). I skimmed it and found myself disagreeing with so many of their predictions that I found the document useless and I told him so. My friend suggested I was ignorant and asked me for examples. Kiplinger was predicting $75 oil at year end so I told him that was way off, should be closer to $100. It's nice to be validated every once in awhile.

Hope ya'll enjoyed your vacation to the Pyramids...I would have loved to have gone to them before the great dieoff, buy like other useless shit most monkeys buy...I passed on the opportunity and bought gold and food.

Canned beef is still at $2. Inflation doomsayers, this might be your last chance to stock up! In hard times, barter with useful items works better - standard-size vodka bottles were used as a hard currency (illegal tender?) in early 1990s Russia, sometimes changing many hands, while gold jewelry ended up in pawnshops.

If you own stocks that mirror the S&P, you have made ZERO. That is most of the commoners out there with 401k's. Before anyone blabs that they are up big, remember, I said the commoners out there who just put their money in weekly thinking they will someday retire. They won't.

Glad I have a pension and a gov't job. We print money for ourselves first.

Anonymous said... ..... He said his own bank was in a good position, but believed that other banks may have to shut their doors. Although this is nothing "new" to us here, it is fairly significant to hear a bank loan officer say the same thing.============================ My cousin in the banking industry came up with his family for the New Year's weekend. I know that his VERY conservative bank has minimal exposure to the mortgage fiasco. I asked him if certain OTHER banks (we all know their names) were still up to their old tricks. He informs me that it's business as usual in "liar loan land" and if anything, the worst offenders are ramped up to the max and still pumping out toxic waste as fast and furiously as they can.

They're not in a bubble. The US$ is falling, which makes it look like commodities prices are going up. The same is happening with corn, wheat, soybeans, silver etc etc. People don't want to trade commodities for worthless paper.

The difference between commodities prices and RE prices is that RE requires lots of credit in order to maintain asset values. Most people don't buy commodities leverages at 90% or more. That's why a credit crunch will hurt auto, electronics, and home sales and not food or energy prices as much.

Began acquiring gold at $280. Never trusted in stocks, bonds, 401K's, savings accounts, or anything else. Now my decision is really paying off, just as I knew it would. Strong feeling that gold will continue to go thru the stratosphere as geopolitical & economic issues really start heating up. Understanding biblical prophecy is what helps me make my decisions. DIRE PREDICTION: America will not recover from what is taking place!! (At least not in this lifetime)

If you own stocks that mirror the S&P, you have made ZERO. That is most of the commoners out there with 401k's. Before anyone blabs that they are up big, remember, I said the commoners out there who just put their money in weekly thinking they will someday retire. They won't.

You haven't even factored in inflation. The S&P is actually down about 35% in real terms over the past 8 years. My 401K is entirely in internationals and I am up by a pretty good amount. I finished college in 2000 and didn't even contribute to my 401K until 2003 because the market was crashing. Most 401k plans don't even give the choice of international funds.

A triplex sold in '05 for $629K, now has been lowered gradually by the bank to $350K... monthly PITI and other expenses will be less than $3000, and monthly income will be $3700 with rents alone.

Is now a good time to buy, or do we stay away from real estate period???

Forget about what it sold for way back when. It's interesting historical data, nothing more. It doesn't mean that's the "true value" of the triplexes, nor that you can expect to someday get that much for them if you sell them in the future. You need to know how you can make it work for you now.

Take into consideration the local economy. What kind of employers are there, what kind of wages do they pay, and are their industries doing well? Are businesses tending to move into or out of the area?

How much rental competition are you facing, BTW? If there are more rentals coming on because people can't sell their homes, your rent could tend to trend downwards. If they are tightening up, that's good for you since you may be able to charge more rent.

What's the potential upkeep on your part? Do the units need extensive renovation to compete with other rentals? New roofs? Water heaters? Will any upgrades allow you to charge higher rent, and how long will it take for them to pay for themselves?

Do you want to deal with the headaches of being a landlord? What if a unit or two is vacant for a while? How long can you carry it until you get a new, paying tenant? How are you going to weed out the good ones from the FB's likely to trash the joint?

Do landlord/tenant laws in your area tend to favor the landlord or the tenant? If you have to toss a nightmare tenant to the curb, how long would it take under your locality's eviction proceedings?

Yeah, I know, lots of questions. But you are looking at plunking down a sizable chunk of change to invest in this, and you should be asking these questions and others before you sign on for it.

Anyone who tells you "it's just another investment" is blowing smoke up your ass. Owning real estate is not just sitting on your butt waiting for the money to roll in like you can do if you own stocks, bonds or CD's.

Stuck in So PA said:"He informs me that it's business as usual in "liar loan land" and if anything, the worst offenders are ramped up to the max and still pumping out toxic waste as fast and furiously as they can."